Lynn Boylan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I would like to raise two issues. First, on behalf of the Sinn Féin team, I wish our best to the families of the Stardust fire, who have another pre-inquest hearing today. Yet again, they are not going to be sure whether their lawyers are going to get paid, despite the fact the legal team have been working on this inquest for three years without receiving a single penny for their work. All of the other legal teams who represent the other families, the Garda, Dublin Fire Brigade and the coroner have got paid but, for the families at the heart of this inquest, their legal team has yet to get paid. It is an absolute disgrace. I wish them the best today. I hope that can be resolved and that the inquest can go ahead as planned.

The second issue I want to raise is the story in The Irish Timestoday about Ryanair and how it is treating a number of passengers regarding chargebacks during the Covid pandemic. These are people who could not fly, for one reason or another, and who were either waiting in frustration for refunds from Ryanair - and we have heard of numerous cases concerning how long people had to wait for their refunds - or where they decided to go down the chargeback route. Ryanair has decided not to take up that dispute with the banks or the credit card companies but, instead, has allowed people to book flights with Ryanair, which takes their money, and then, when those people go to check in, they are refused check-in unless they repay the money they got back in refunds for flights they did not take during the pandemic restrictions.

This raises a number of issues. In one case, a woman was on a return flight so we are talking about an airline that is potentially leaving people stranded in other countries until they repay the money they got back on their cards, rather than going down the road of pursuing others. If it feels the money was refunded wrongfully, then Ryanair has plenty of deep pockets to go and pursue that through the proper manner and not leave people stranded when trying to get home from wherever they have had to travel to. There are also big concerns around GDPR in regard to the manner in which it is doing this. What information is Ryanair holding on people in terms of credit checks? It is not a financial institution so if somebody has got a refund from it, what markings is it putting on those people’s accounts to ensure it is able to identify them, take their money and then, when they go to check in, demand more money from them? This requires a statement from the Minister for Transport as to what he is going to do to look into this issue.